Ron
"Itchy" Smith played guard for Camden
High School, graduating in 1960. He scored 1,276 points over three
seasons and led Camden to consecutive Group 4 basketball titles in 1959
and '60. The Purple Avalanche, coached by
Tony
Alfano, constructed a 47-game winning streak
behind him and teammates Golden "Sonny" Sunkett and Lenny
Hall. The 6-1 guard is widely regarded as South Jersey's best
all-time player, a deadly shooter with tremendous skills off the
dribble. He starred for four years at Tennessee State and returned to
Camden, where he still resides.

Camden
Courier-Post * October 21, 2006

Camden legend Ron
'Itchy' Smith enters County Hall of Fame

By CELESTE E.
WHITTAKERCourier-Post Staff

Ron
"Itchy" Smith is a basketball legend in Camden. Just don't tell
him that.

There
are old-timers who still call him the best player in South Jersey history.

Stories
of the feats Smith accomplished on the court are still being recounted at
reunions, in barber shops, at get-togethers and parties more than 40 years
later as if they happened yesterday.

"He
could do everything," said Golden "Sonny" Sunkett, Smith's
best friend and former Camden teammate. "As great as those guys were
at Camden, there has never been a player as good as Itchy."

Smith,
65, has always been a reluctant star who shies away from the spotlight. In
fact, he declined to be photographed for this story.

But
Camden's shy superstar will receive another honor tonight. Smith, along
with 14 others, will be inducted into the Camden County Hall of Fame at
the Woodbine Inn in Pennsauken.

To
Smith, trophies, plaques and other accolades are appreciated, but not
necessary.

Smith,
a divorced father, talks more easily about the fact that he'd display the
trophies and certificates of the neighborhood kids in his family's store
in Camden than he does about any of his honors.

"We're
not looking for fame or a claim to anything, but being good people. We
were guys that took advantage of being young and having people behind
us," said the tall, slim, bespectacled Smith.

Imagine
that, an athlete who doesn't want or need the fame. Smith can't remember
the last time he attended a basketball game at Camden.

"He
was devoid of ego," said Lewis
Katz, 64, the former owner and managing partner of the New Jersey Nets
who graduated from Camden a year before Smith. "When an athlete like
that is devoid of ego, he doesn't showcase himself. He was the most
unselfish player on that team. But he was just a good guy with
extraordinarily limited ambition and no ego. He's happy living above his
candy store. On the court, there was nobody that could get close to
him." All-around athlete

Dhamiri
Abayomi (who was Donald Council during his Camden days) grew up in
Centerville with Smith and Sunkett and played football and ran track with
Smith and remembers him as a great all-around athlete.

"There
was nobody like him," said Abayomi, who was a year ahead of Smith and
Sunkett in school and is in Temple University's Athletic Hall of Fame.
"Very humble. He would always just amaze you. You could be playing
him and he would do something so fast and so quick, you would say,
"Did he really do that?' "

Away
from the athletic courts and fields, Smith always stuck close to his
friends. When Sunkett's sons Jeremy and Jason were younger and had
baseball games, Smith went to every one of them. He's been to every
important event in Sunkett's life, his wedding, his induction into Seton
Hall's Hall of Fame, you name it. The pair talk on the phone each day.

They
grew up in the Centerville section of Camden, some 25 yards away from one
another.

Famed
music writer Leon Huff and
well-know jazz musician Charles
"Buster" Williams grew up nearby. They were mentored by the
men in the community, even if they had good parents at home. The mentors

Smith
and his friends were guided by men like Charles
"Doc" Brimm; Aaron Thompson, the former Camden mayor and the
uncle of former Camden star Billy Thompson who will also be inducted
tonight; Walter Gordon, the former Hatch
Junior High principal whose son Bruce
is the president of the NAACP; boxer "Jersey
Joe" Walcott (whose real name was Arnold Cream, Sr.); Al
Bass,
who ran a local basketball league; Donald "Ducky" Birts, a
former Camden High player; Tony
Alfano, their basketball coach at Camden; and Joe Papiano, their
football coach at Camden. They were mentors and idols. Bass will also be
inducted into the Hall of Fame tonight.

"They
kept us so clean," said Smith. "It goes beyond sports. They
built character in us. The men are not stepping up today."

On
a recent evening at Ponzio's Restaurant in Cherry Hill, Sunkett and Smith
sat down and reminisced about their lives. It's a story about a great
friendship. A story about a once great neighborhood. A story about great
mentors. A story about a man that apparently had so much creativity on the
court that he was before his time. The legends

Oh,
the stories. There's the one about Smith hurting his hand and the team --
which went undefeated in 1959 and 1960 and won state titles both years --
not expecting him to play in the championship game his senior year when
the starters were Sunkett, Smith, Ralph Heath, Sam Fisher and Reggie
Hammond. Smith played and shot 14-for-17 that day. After the game, a
sportswriter overheard them talking about Smith's hand being hurt.

"The
guy said, "He was hurt?' Charlie (Maddox) said, "He hurt his
hand,' " Sunkett recalled. "The reporter said "He didn't
have any problem with his hand.' Charlie said, "Itchy's right-handed.
He played the whole game left-handed.' "

Maddox,
63, a former basketball and football teammate, can attest to Smith's
greatness.

"He
made about 10 straight jump shots that day," Maddox recalled.
"It didn't matter with him. He could use either hand. This guy was
amazing. He was centuries ahead of himself." The talent

The
talent was seemingly always there. Smith and Sunkett were playing in a
game at Hatch Junior High one day. They were running down court on a
2-on-3 fast break. Smith split two of the three defenders with a crossover
move, they knocked into one another and knocked each other out, he tossed
the ball behind his back up in the air to Sunkett, who tossed a no-look
pass right back to Smith on the other side for the easy score.

"The
referee said, "Holy (Cow), did you see that play?' " Sunkett
said. "I had never seen a guy do that at 14 years old. They would vie
to get our games."

Years
later Sunkett was a member of the Seton Hall basketball team, one of eight
seniors from his high school squad who earned a full scholarship to
college. As a freshman, he was tapped to guard the team's best player at
practice one day.

He
shut him down. The coach asked him how he'd had so much success and his
reply was, "You guard Itchy Smith all day long, this is a piece of
cake." A comparison

Camden
has produced some basketball greats. Everybody from Billy Thompson to Milt
Wagner and his son Dajuan Wagner to Kevin Walls.

But
the only modern day player Sunkett would compare Smith to is a future NBA
Hall of Famer.

"The
only player that I saw that had Itchy's ability, and I watch the game, is
Michael Jordan," Sunkett said. "Itchy was doing stuff Jordan did
years ago."

"Will
you stop talking about me," Smith said to Sunkett playfully.

They
can't.

"I
go around the country," Katz said. "They say, "Oh, you're
from Camden, Itchy Smith.' They don't say Milt Wagner or Wagner's kid
(Dajuan) or (Billy) Thompson. I think many people believe that he
single-handedly was the greatest athlete to ever come out of Camden. I bet
you soaking wet he didn't weigh 160, 170 pounds. His speed was
blinding."

You
wonder how someone who was so great, such a showman, so creative and
inventive on the court, could be so reclusive off the court. But his
friends say he's always been that way.

"This
is not new," said Sunkett, who resides in Marlton. "This guy
hasn't changed since he was 7. Never been pretentious. Itchy made way for
guys who were sitting on the bench so when they were younger, they got
playing time. Most of our games, we were ahead 30 points going into the
third quarter." Unselfish player

Sunkett
talks of times when Smith, a 6-foot-1 guard, would have 20 points in the
first quarter and tell the coach to take him out of the game. Smith scored
1,301 points in three seasons, but probably could've scored a lot more.

"Coach
Alfano said, "This guy is about the most unselfish guy I ever coached
and the best player I ever coached,' " Sunkett said.

Said
Smith: "When I finished playing in a game my family never said,
"You played a great game.' They always said "You guys really
played a good game.'

"I
got four other people over there." Ties that bind

A
strong tie to Camden is no doubt the reason that after Smith graduated
from Tennessee State in 1965 with a degree in business administration he
returned to the city where he still resides.

He
went to school on a basketball scholarship and made All-Midwestern
Conference his junior and senior years. He worked in code enforcement for
the city for five or six years and then helped run the family's B&E
Variety Store.

Sunkett,
who practiced law for years and now works for the South Jersey
Transportation Authority as a regulatory specialist, doesn't tire of
telling stories about his best friend.

"We
had about as good a life as anybody could have," Sunkett said.
"We were at the right time, in the right neighborhood and with the
right people. We were blessed."

Said
Smith: "Life's been good. I don't have no complaints. I'm not rich
but..."

Oh,
but Ron "Itchy" Smith is rich, all right.

IF
YOU GO
Former Camden High School basketball stars Ron "Itchy" Smith,
Sonny Sunkett and Billy Thompson will be inducted into the Camden County
Sports Hall of Fame tonight at the Woodbine Inn in Pennsauken. Other
members of the second class include John Taylor, Phillip Brooks, Edward
Myer, Al Carino, Deidre Kane, Jeanne O'Brian Kline, Bernadette McGlade,
Kathy McGahey Heinzler, Albert Bass, Bob Kenney, Don Casey and David
Praiss.

All proceeds benefit Special Olympics. Contact Kim Vesper for tickets.